Selecting a Rendering Engine

By default, when rendering a 3D model through Autodesk Maya, the model will be rendered using the rendering engine its Maya project file is configured to use. However, it is also possible to select which rendering engine to use by selecting it in the layer properties of the Maya Batch Render node. It is important to always use the rendering engine the model was intended to be rendered with.

Harmony supports the following rendering engines:

  • Maya
  • Mental Ray
  • Renderman Reyes
  • Renderman RIS
  • Arnold
NOTE It is recommended to use either Renderman or Arnold to render 3D objects through Autodesk Maya, as those rendering engines will return deep texture images, which can be composited relative to other elements in your scene with antialiasing. When using other rendering engines, 3D models that clip with elements in your scene may have a hard pixelated seam at their intersection.
IMPORTANT The selected rendering engine must be installed on the workstation on which Harmony is rendering the scene, or the model will not be rendered and will be invisible in the rendered image.

  1. In the Node view, locate the Maya Batch Render node, and click on its Layer Propertiesbutton.

    The Layer Properties dialog for the Maya Batch Render node appears.

  1. In the Attributes tab, in the Renderer field, enter one of the following values, depending on which rendering engine you wish to use:

    • Maya's native rendering engine: mayasoftware or maya
    • Renderman (Reyes): renderman, rendermanreyes or reyes
    • Renderman (RIS): rendermanris or ris
    • Arnold: arnold

  1. Click on Close.
  1. In the Camera view, click on the Render View button.

    2. The 3D model will now be rendered in the newly selected rendering engine.